2015 Winners and Finalists
The 2015 contest had two divisions. Adults were 18 years old or out of high school. Youth were 18 or under, or still in school. There were three categories: Landscapes, Plants (included lichens and fungi), and Animals.
Thank you to ALL who submitted. Congratulations to the winners and finalists!
Be sure to scroll down to read the Jurors' Notes.
Thank you to ALL who submitted. Congratulations to the winners and finalists!
Be sure to scroll down to read the Jurors' Notes.
Adult Landscape Winner
Lone Tree - Suzy Ro, La Habra, California
Adult Landscape Finalists
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Adult Plants/Trees/Fungi Winner
Leaf of Lace, Kathleen Furey, South Riding, Virginia
Adult Plants/Trees/Fungi Finalists
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Adult Wildlife Winner
The Last Drop - Jose Luis Rodriguez, Avila, Spain
Adult Wildlife Finalists
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Youth Landscape Winner
The Path of Stars - Akash Thakkar, Cedar Park, Texas
Youth Landscape Finalists
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Youth Plants/Trees/Fungi Winner
Red Flora at Kauai, Hawaii - Sarah Stansberry, Lone Tree, Colorado
Youth Plants/Trees/Fungi Finalists
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Youth Wildlife Winner
Test of Strength - Mateusz Piesiak, Wroclaw, Poland
Youth Wildlife Finalists
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2015 Winners |
Jurors' Notes |
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The 2015 contest had two divisions. Adults were 18 years old or out of high school. Youth were 18 or under, or still in school. There were three categories: Landscapes, Plants (included lichens and fungi), and Animals.
Many thanks to all who entered. Your contest fees help Jamestown Audubon continue its work to make the world a better place! We had 241 adults from 12 foreign countries and 34 U.S. states submit 402 photographs for consideration. In the Youth Division, there were 67 photographers from 3 foreign countries and 19 U.S. states who submitted 140 photographs. |
The jurors would like to thank everyone who submitted work to this contest. We thoroughly enjoyed looking at these images and often gave an image what we consider to be the highest compliment, “I wish I had made that.” We would like you to know that it was very difficult selecting the winner in each category. Most of the work we looked at exhibited technical proficiency, compositional excellence, sensitivity to time of day and lighting, and an appreciation for our natural world.
We were especially impressed by the work of the young photographers. Much of this work would compete well against that of more seasoned image-makers. The criteria that we used to determine the winners and the finalists were as follows: |
- Unique perspective – imagery that rose above what we have seen before (not cliché.)
- Effort – the photographer knew where to be, when to be there, and what angle to shoot from, even if that meant getting “down and dirty” or wet from head to toe. The resulting images reflected that research, consideration and commitment.
- Technical photographic skills – exposures were well made, lens or lens focal length choices contributed to the image’s success, point of view was well selected, angle of view was well considered, focus was sharp where it should be sharp, depth of field choices were well made, images were neither over-processed nor over-sharpened, and refinements were carefully executed.
- Composition – compositions moved the eye strategically, resulting in interesting and well-balanced framing.
- Light – direction and quality of light were carefully taken into account and utilized to make the best image possible.
- Horizons that are not straight
- Over-processing
- Over-sharpening
- Graphic issues like having the top of someone’s head align with another line or object in the frame, or not seeing the animal’s head clearly separate from other compositional elements
- Objects centered within the composition that are not strong enough to hold “center stage”
- Horizon lines that are placed in the center of the frame
- Focus problems, including absence of hyper-focal focusing in landscapes
- Images that are cliché
~ Deborah Lanni & Bruce Fox
